Getting Stuff Done.

While in the big city we planned on taking advantage of services that have been out of our reach for the last five months, like a dry cleaner.  Our bedspread and pillow shams are dry clean only and after five months in the desert they are more than ready for cleaning.

We drove around trying to find a dry cleaner, thinking we could get our laundry done in a couple of days.  Not so.  Every dry cleaner we went to wanted one to three weeks to do the job.  Oh well, next try, Albuquerque.

For a long time an air museum known as the Confederate Air Force has had one of the most extensive, flying WW II aircraft collection in the world and they were based out of Harlingen, Tx.  But with Harlingen being on the Gulf Coast they were having problems with corrosion.  They pulled up stakes and moved the whole operation inland to a part of the desert known as Midland.  The CAF(now known as Commemorative Air Force) has built an impressive museum at the Midland International Airport.  There is a hangar nearby that can be visited as part of the museum tour.  There is one static exhibit but you never know what other planes may be in the hangar.  Some are there between air shows, some are in for renovation.  You just have to go and see what you get.

Cyndee was not really into the air museum so John did this one on his own.  An early arrival saw me with the museum all to myself.  I roamed around for over an hour before I saw another person.  The amount of material to read was intense and their displays of era material was top notch.  They also had the worlds largest collection of nose art.  They actually cut the art-bearing section of the bombers and fighters off the planes and built displays to hold the sections along with interesting narratives about each piece of art.  Photographing any of this neat stuff was strictly forbidden.

But photos could be taken in the hangar.  I got a couple nice shots of some birds not out doing an air show.

How did that civilian airplane get in there?

The CAF has fighters and bombers and today the only bomber in the hanger is the C-47, although this one is outfitted as a troop transport.

This old bird was painted as it would have been while in service during WW II.  There was no information on the nose art, not sure if it is from the plane's past or something to do with its current station.

Midland is also home to a couple of bastions of higher learning.  One of these, Midland College has a Guest Lecturer series and lucky for me (John) they are having one of my favorite physicists, Michio Kaku.  And even better, its free, all you have to do is show up.

Michio Kaku.
If you watch PBS, Discovery Channel or National Geographic Channel you may recognize this face.

  Cyndee, thinking this was going to be a lecture on astrophysics, decided to pass on this too.  And rightly so as Dr. Kaku is one of the most preeminent physicists living today.  After all, he is one of the co-founders of string theory, home to strange behaviors and multi-verses.  But the lecture was more a promotion for his new book about the future of the mind and delivered in terms that the 1000+ people at the lecture could enjoy and appreciate.  Can't believe I had to come to the middle of the oil patch to see a guy that is more often known to be plying the halls of Ivey League institutions.